Just recently went in to have Alberto take a look at my 2005 LGT Wagon and give it the once over and give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down that it's ready for me to take it to stage II on my own. Mostly, I was looking to establish a base line so that I would know if I was having problems in the future, that the most likely culprit would be something I did rather than something I didn't know about.

Alberto was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We chatted a bunch about parts and LGT.com and turbo Subies in general. I know he has been (and continues to be) a frequent poster on some of the other forums so he's familiar with that side of the culture too. I didn't have particularly complicated work to get done, but as far as I can tell, he did a great job with what I asked him to do.

In addition to my leakdown test and boost leak test, Alberto also found some overspray in the engine bay from either the power steering pump or the tranny. Personally, I think it was the dummies at NTB monkeying around when they were trying to upsell me on fluids to go with my tire mount. But I'm keeping an eye on those things, just in case. He even found a tiny nail in one of my brand new super spendy tires. Not pleased with that, but great catch Alberto.

After he buttoned things up, we chatted for a bit and he mentioned that in addition to his full service offerings he's even willing to potentially rent some lift time to some of his customers that are interested in doing a lot of the work themselves. He says he would be there to look over your work and provide any tips you might need (though, of course you would have to do most of the labor yourself). But this would basically be expert oversight on your own labor at an extremely discounted price as opposed to the full service work.

If you're a newb like I am that's interested in learning more about how to do things yourself, this is a very attractive option. I'm seriously considering taking him up on that to do my own brakes on his lift. This is one of those jobs that I don't think is really hard at all, but the possible negative consequences are a little higher with this particular job than most, so I've really been looking for ways to get somebody who knows more than I do to look things over.

Of course, I don't speak for Motive Auto Works in any way, so I leave that up to you to work out with Alberto on your own if your interested. If you'd rather have Motive handle the work, it sounded like they could easily handle just about any oem or aftermarket install up to and including fully built motors. I expect that I will be a repeat customer at Motive for some time to come. Recommended!